Music of the Night
by Moonlit-Jeannie
Summary: That shuffle ten drabble challenge going around. I've tagged keriberi2003, Invalid Minds, bsloths, December, and TheBucketWoman.


-1**AN: Okay, everyone probably knows about these by now. I was tagged by Shellie (jeytonlover) and by Sam (degrassichick). This is the response for Shellie. It isn't that great, but with the time limit…oh well, haha. Anyway, I'll try to do the one for Sam tonight or tomorrow and each one will probably be a crossover. So get excited about that (sarcasm).**

**Anyway, if you don't know already, what you do if you're tagged is you put your iPod, mp3 player, media player, whatever, on shuffle and for the first ten songs that pop up you write a drabble for each song. The only thing is…you only have the duration for the song to write it (which is why mine suck, ahem) before you have to move on to the next one. **

**Also, you tag five people. Almost everyone's been tagged once already, and I think everyone loves this enough…that I'm not going to worry about if you've been tagged before or not because I'm mean like that, lol. So…have fun!**

**1. Keriberi2003 (Keri)**

**2. Invalid Minds (Jo)**

**3. bsloths (Brandi)**

**4. December**

**5. TheBucketWoman (Cat)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this except for the order of the words. Actually, I don't even own some of those because they're partially lyrics. Meh.**

…

_**1. **_

"**Lessons Learned" by Carrie Underwood-Nasey**

Casey shook her head, the tears running down her cheeks as she sat on the other side of the bathroom door. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have thought that he loved her?

Her boyfriend's voice floated through the cracks between the door and its frame and it just made Casey's tears flow even harder. She thought that he was the one who would never hurt her, but no, no-all guys really were like Derek weren't they?

"Casey, look, just come out…we can talk about this… Nothing happened, you're just jumping to conclusions."

Slowly the door opened and Casey walked right by Noel, her head held high.

"No, you know what? I know what I saw. I'm just disappointed in myself that I thought differently, but with Sally? You know, never mind."

She took a deep breath and suddenly the words that had never come to her in all of her other breakups were there. She was speaking through her breakup with Sam, with Max. It was like the words for every single one of those guys were coming out of her mouth at that moment and were being thrown at poor Noel. Noel, who she'd thought was the perfect guy, who was better than Max. Instead, she'd been fooled and found him and Sally in an intimate looking conversation on the couch, her hair falling into her face until he finally brushed it back. And then, she couldn't even think of the rest of it.

"It's over, Noel. It's over."

And it was over, not like the carousel that she'd been on with Max, never ending, even when the excitement was gone and it got boring. And not like the ripping off of the Band-Aid that was her breakup with Sam. She was finally able to voice her thoughts, her feelings, and she was going to move on. No matter how hard it was.

_**2.**_

"**Whenever You Remember" by Carrie Underwood-Casey…Dasey kind of**

Casey pulled out the scrapbook that held the memories of her three years at Thompson and documented the growth of some semblance of a relationship between her and Derek. They'd been…friends by graduation, she'd like to think. They were something, what the word for it was, she wasn't sure it had yet been submitted to be in the dictionary yet or not.

Then, during university…they'd gotten closer and formed a relationship that she never would have thought possible, much less considered when she had first met him. He had changed, and she had changed with time, she had to admit.

She remembered when she'd gone back to the school during their summer vacation to visit Paul, Derek had teased her because only the losers went back to school to visit old teachers, much less their guidance counselors. When she'd told him of everything that had happened, he'd just kind of smiled knowingly, just like Emily had when she had told her best friend. Their parents, however, hadn't been as accepting, but finally they had accepted them as a couple.

But now, ten years after high school graduation, almost nine years since she and Derek had first gotten together, he was getting married to someone who wasn't her. She wondered if he thought back like she did, if he remembered how they'd come so far.

_**3.**_

"**Does Anybody Hear Her?" by Casting Crowns-Kendra**

She'd tried her hand at a real relationship during grade eleven with Derek Venturi. Of course, he was Derek Venturi and he didn't do relationships. It was much like the fact that she was Kendra Michaels and didn't do relationships. They were one in the same, that should have been her first indication that the relationship was going to fail.

After her short-lived relationship with Derek, she looked everywhere. She was determined to make it work, to make someone want to make it work with her, but she'd seemed to have made a name for herself around town, just like Derek had for himself. She was Kendra, she didn't do relationships, she did other girls' boyfriends, though.

She what the looks when she walked down the street meant, whether they were from girls or boys, but she thought that maybe she could get away.

Two years after that relationship with Derek. Two years of meaningless dates, meaningless sex, meaningless classes in school, meaningless everything-she finally got away. She moved to Toronto for school, removing herself from her family, from what "friends" she had, from everyone who knew her name and knew the title that went along with it. She wanted to get away from the looks and by taking such great strides to get away, she hoped that it would work. And maybe, in this new setting she'd be able to find a guy who didn't expect her to live up to her name.

She'd met him at a party, she didn't even know what his name was, but she thought it might have started with a T or something like that, she had been so tired from trying to make herself over. She was tired of waiting for that guy to come along and sweep her off of her feet, no matter what name had been associated with her, because Prince Charming so obviously was not coming for her. Life wasn't a Disney movie and she was beginning to realize that, something that she should have realized when she was thirteen and had lost her virginity at a coed sleepover. So, in a moment of weakness and alcohol impaired judgment, she gave in. Goodbye waiting, goodbye to six months of celibacy, and, when the test came back positive a month later, goodbye life and normalcy.

No one was coming to save her. She'd made the name for herself, she'd sealed her fate years ago.

_**4.**_

"**Judas" by Kelly Clarkson-Masey and Emily/Max…kind of**

It was funny, really it was. There had to be a punch line in there somewhere. Casey knew that Derek had that stupid "male code" that he'd pulled out of nowhere way back (last year) when she and Sam had liked each other, but really, wasn't there a real rule about dating best friend's exes? Or something along those lines…even if there wasn't, there should definitely be a rule for sleeping with best friend's current boyfriends.

She'd excuse Emily in the fact that she was still kind of broken up about Sheldon moving away, but didn't she like that Peter guy? The punter? And wasn't she over the whole social climbing/popularity thing? That's how she'd taken her whole attitude during the cheerleading tryouts, but then why was it that she had to find out, from Derek of all people, that he'd walked in on her best friend and boyfriend doing the deed at some party?

_**5.**_

"**I Wonder" by Kellie Pickler**

Maura looked down at the small bundle in her arms before looking up at her fiance and smiling. All of the nervousness that she'd had before had disappeared the instant her baby, Lana, had been handed over to her. She saw her dad standing in the doorway, slightly hesitant about coming in, her younger sisters and brother standing close behind him.

Her twelve year old brother shook his head when he noticed that she had started to look behind the group to see if anyone else was there. She knew that Sam knew who she was looking for, and honestly, she didn't know why she was looking. Sometimes she wondered if the woman who had the same hair and eyes of April and Juli, her two little sisters' were anything more than just that, a woman who looked like them. Did she even think about them? Were they anything more to her than disappointments and she was getting her second chance to mess up two more kids with the second batch she'd been given just a few years earlier?

She had asked Sam, who had started to call their mom every Christmas after he turned nine, to call her and let her know that she was having a baby of her own. She had hoped that she'd be proud of her and quite possibly come to see her grandchild or, at the very least, pass on congratulations to her like random people in the grocery store even took the time to do, but the woman had passed on nothing but words of anger and had even asked Sam if their dad had kicked her out before she could be a bad influence for him and her sisters.

Maura wished that she would at the very least show up, just so she could tell her off, tell her how she would be there for her daughter in all of the ways that Laura hadn't been there for her. Or for April, Juliane, Danielle, or even Sam. She'd be there to braid her hair when she was little, to dress her in pretty dresses, take her to dance classes, help her get ready for the prom and talk about boys…all of the things that she thought about at night, things that she missed, because of her mom.

_**6.**_

"**Hear Me" by Kelly Clarkson-Marti**

Apparently there was a slight disadvantage in the dating department when you had two brothers and two stepsisters, all of which were dating their respective age counterparts. That disadvantage, Marti was beginning to learn, was that it left her all alone.

She'd dated, sure. She wasn't really sure if you could be the younger sister of Derek Venturi and not have a few tricks up your sleeve, but there wasn't anyone who complimented her the way Casey complimented Derek. There wasn't anyone to be her partner in crime, the way Lizzie was for Edwin. And there certainly wasn't anyone who could piss her off the way any of them did the other. And, as gross (and romantic, her inner six year old Disney loving soul added in) as it was to think about, she knew that always led to making up.

At night, she thought about it. She thought about it with wicked intensity, she wrote about it, she talked about it (cried about it) to her best friend Josie, but it seemed like that person couldn't hear her, no matter how hard she cried, how much she wanted someone to come in and claim her for his own (although Casey would probably like to point out that that was kind of sexist, but that chivalry was perfectly alright just so long as the guy didn't consider her a piece of meat or an object that he owned).

_**7.**_

"**Out of my League" by Stephen Speaks-Shemily**

Every time Emily opened her mouth and words came out, directed at him, Sheldon had to force himself not to go completely stupid.

Obviously, he didn't do that great of a job, but, hey, it could always be worse.

With every smile, every laugh, every shake of the head and roll of her eyes he had to fight to find his voice before he could respond and not sound like a thirteen year old boy going through puberty.

Every day, he had to remind himself that she was _his _and no one else's and every day he felt lucky to have her because, in his mind, she could do so much better than him, Sheldon Schlepper, and she was completely out of his league.

_**8.**_

"**Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance**

Derek nudged Ralph and smirked before "going long" down the hallway to await the pass that his friend would throw him.

Sam shook his head and continued talking to Emily and Casey about the test that they had in Calculus that day, he'd tried to help his friends study for their respective tests, but they'd just ignored his attempts, so now he was going to focus on more important things.

Trevor walked down the hallway to his locker, nodding to Emily and Casey as he walked by. His crush on Emily had dissipated over the last year, helped by his new girlfriend, Kendra, who he had met through his sister earlier that year.

Max glared at Derek when the other boy accidentally missed the pass from his friend and it hit him in the head. Derek's defense was that Max was on the football team and should be able to catch a wide open pass much better than someone who was on the hockey team.

No one who was in the hallway, preparing for the next class (or not preparing, in the cases of Ralph and Derek), noticed the boy who walked down the hallway, down the same path that each one of them had taken to their own lockers.

That is, none of them noticed until he reached his locker and took something from his backpack that would change each and every one of their lives forever.

_**9.**_

"**On My Own" from Les Miserables-Dasey**

Casey wrapped the jacket tightly around her before draping her blanket lightly over the jacket and settling herself onto the top step of her porch. She stared at the lights along the street in wonder, and admired the way they reflected on the wet street that they hovered over.

Everyone was asleep, she was the only one still awake, how anyone could sleep with her gone was beyond her. He'd been gone for three days and she had not slept for over eighty-four hours. She knew that it couldn't be good for her, this lack of sleep. Maybe if she slept, maybe in her dreams he would come to her, but, no, she couldn't sleep.

"Case?" she turned around to see him standing in the open doorway, the light from the living room shining on him and making the auburn in his hair especially stand out. "It's late…" he paused, but noticed what she was wearing, "is that my jacket?"

She nodded. "Can't sleep, and it's cold outside…"

He shrugged indifferently. It was Casey, anyone else and he might have to kill them. There was her bitter humor and she had to shake it out of her head again.

He walked closer to her, wrapping his arms about her, nodding his head toward the garage. "Want to go for a drive?"

She ran inside to grab the keys and returned to find him leaning up against the house. He never let her drive, but these days, she always drove. She would drive for hours, talking to him, thinking about only him, but in the morning…he'd just be gone again and she'd be all alone.

_**10.**_

"**Breathe" by Michelle Branch-Casey…Dasey kind of.**

"This is stupid…This. Is. Stupid!" Casey shouted to herself, pounding her palms against the steering wheel before she once again grabbed the wheel, and made sure that she hadn't veered into the wrong lane or anything crazy like that.

The rain beat down on the windshield and the wipers were swishing back and forth as a sort of instrumental arrangement for the song in her head that was becoming routine.

She and Derek were back home for the summer, so of course only disaster could be expected to come from it all, but for two years, since right before graduation, she had been in love with her stupid jerk of a stepbrother. Of course, he didn't notice it, and she had to keep up appearances and fight and bicker with him like she felt nothing, like everything was alright. She hoped that he would look into her eyes and just see it there, but he never did.

So, to calm down, she took long drives and talked herself up to telling him her feelings and then back down again, telling herself that it was a stupid idea. It was becoming routine and the days when it rained had become her favorite days to drive. The pitter patter of the rain on the glass calmed her even more and was like its own melody. So each day, she talked herself, once again, out of telling Derek of her feelings and at the end of every drive, she called Emily who always had to remind her that breathing was important. Not many people could understand her rants.


End file.
